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"Stay and study?," Pip asks. "I think we did everything we came here for, right? We retrieved Zahra, and we have the lamp. I propose we move together out of the city, just for safety. Then Garam can teleport to the city, and clear Zahra's mind. We'll listen to her story, report to the Venture-captain, and then return to explore more of the city. Plan?"
Once again, Pip is surprised at the efficiency of the group. And a little intimidated by the casual way that Hellion dismisses it. "Right," she says as she looks around the room. "Really sorry, Zahra." As she approaches the lamp, she asks "do you think we could bring her back to consciousness now? Would the spell be broken? Or will we need a Restoration spell?" She stops two foot away from the pedestal with the lamp, and cautiously starts examining it - thoroughly. She casts a quick spell to sharpen her senses, and casts detect magic as well, hoping to spot any signs of magical traps, or whether the lamp is indeed magical. --
Pip watches the man draw on the power of ice. She has a quick flash vision, watching herself nearly encased in ice and crouches low, trusting her instincts. With relief, she feels the cone of frost pass overhead, putting just a bit of rime on her head. She's going to open her mouth when Hellion attacks the undine and Zhara fiercely reacts. "Well, I was going to ask whether that was really Maukadeem, but that answers the question well enough." The half-orc feels at her neck where Zhara's whip struck her. She feels somewhat numb from the shock and decides not to pull any punches. "Right, you asked for this." She shifts the grip on her longsword and takes two short hacks at the woman. --
Pip rounds the bend after the others. "Well, this isn't entire surprising... Zahra, whatever Maukadeem has promised you is a lie! He corrupts and lies, to get what he wants." She sighs. "Words aren't going to make an impression, I'm afraid." She makes a small gesture to invoke good luck and then casts a spell to make her streak forward suddenly, leaving behind a multi-hued cascade of images behind her. At the end, she materializes next to Zahra and strikes to disable the corrupted woman. --
"Well, thanks," Pip comments, a but sore. "Lot of good it did us, as well. All of the traps just seem to be decoys. Here, it's all smoke and mirrors to draw attention away from that secret passage. I suppose that one is free of traps, it should be safe. Although we have no way of knowing what's behind the door, of course." She's not brave - or stupid - enough to take the lead.
Pip has been silent so far, still quite impressed with the way they dealt with the fire elemental. "I'm with Garam on this one," she adds cautiously. [b]"The warning rings a little too true, and the setup seems obvious; lure in people with six doors and six wedges first, then hit them once they're unsuspecting and try to collect the wedges for this door. I don't want the find the entire roof to collapse on us. She studies the double door in the south wall for any other features, or a way to open it that doesn't involve the wedges.
Pip has had nothing but bad experiences with elementals so far, and she's quite intimidated by the size of this one. The way it's pummeling Velidor does't help, and she knows it's time to pulls out the big guns. She leans back slightly on the carpet to cause it to fly backwards, then begins casting a spell. Her chanting start slow, but very quickly increases in paces. "Go, like the wind," she jokes before immediately shrugging an apology. "Sorry, couldn't resist that one." --
Pip suppresses an "A-hah!" and subtly tries to draw the naga's attention, wary of its condition. "Alfashi, if I may... I couldn't help but notice those rugs over there. My companion mentioned that we'd like to search for our lost colleague, somewhere here in the city. It would really help us if we could borrow those rugs for a while, to aid us in searching. The sooner we find her and make sure she's not off doing something dangerous, the better is will be, right? Could we just take them? You don't seem to have a use for them, at the moment."
Pip observes silently as she listens to Garam dealing with the Naga. He's so reasonable and soothing, despite looking a bit intimidating. You really learn a lot from traveling with other Pathfinders! She looks impressed at his feat of cunning and diplomacy. As it's decided that they're moving on, she stays put. "We haven't learned about the carpets," she notes to her companions. Just to be sure, she casts a small cantrip to detect magic. "I hope they are flying carpets. What could be more Qadiran than that!"
Pip follows behind the others, and is quite surprised to see the snake-like creature. It looks like nothing she's seen before. She also notices the eggs, and subtly pokes Mohok to draw his attention to them. Protector of Koor? Is this a naga? A snake lays eggs, doesn't it? If those are its eggs, why did it eat them? She keeps looking, trying to figure out what the scene should mean. Are those the rugs from the room earlier on? Who moved them here? She nods emphatically to add her support for Garam's words. "No, sir. We've heard some stories about Maukadeem, and releasing him sounds like a bad idea." She can't ignore her curiosity and motions towards the rugs with a nod of her head. "Did those rugs come from the room beyond the lava? We came from that way. Do you come up there as well?"
"Hold on, Garam,?" Pip calls out. "Not all of us can fly so easily, and you don't want to be caught out there alone." She points at the ground. "See the dust marks? There used to be carpets here. That's a pretty big coincidence. Someone wouldn't just take the carpets away, right? Unless they could be used to fly, maybe?" She hands Mohok a scroll of resist energy as well, and with the comfort of that safenet jumps from pillar to pillar to land on the northern shore. --
Pip gladly hands Mohok the lamp. "Oh, that's clever. I assume it's a message left by the Toragdan priest. He probably knew someone was going to come after the lamp sooner or later. Maybe this is his way to make it feel like a wild goose-chase?" She watches as Mohok twists the lamp. "Well, at least it's a chase I'm enjoying so far." Ah Mohok's observation, she becomes more cautious. "A beast? Locked in there, after so long?"
Pip stands poised behind Mohok to engage the pile of moving treasure again, but finds that it's not needed anymore. "Well, that was interesting. Although I suppose clever thieves might just lure it away. That's a lot of treasure you don't even have to carry," she jokes. More serious she turns to Garam. "Can you ask your servant to bring that lamp here? We still have to check whether it's the lamp." In preparation of the lamp being brought close, she casts detect magic and checks the room. Finally, she focuses on the lamp.
"IknewitIknewit," Pip mutters as she watches the treasure come to life. She makes a small warding sign with her free hand. "And again I put my life in the hands of fate." She then draws her longsword and hacks at the pile of treasure, not holding back. "We'll see what's left if we're still alive when this thing stops moving, Garam." After her attack, she take a step back behind Mohok, to make room for the others. --
Pip proudly presents the sixth wedge as she's disabled the trap. "Ta-daa!" With Garam and Mohok she studies the tiny hole for a bit, but eventually tires of it. "Weird, but nothing we should worry about now, I think. We've got all six wedges now. The obvious thing to do would be to fit them all into the door over there. Seems a no-brainer, right? Who wants to have the honor?"
Pip is slightly disappointed that the Boom and Garam won't trust her luck in picking out a door, but she quickly shrugs it off. Maybe that's part of the plan, them behind stubborn. She doesn't argue the choice either but, but sets up in the center of the room. "Could be, Mohok, but there's no real chance to tell. Also, the doors aren't numbered, so we have no way of knowing which one is supposed to be the sixth. Any is as good as the others..."
Pip carefully follows down the stairs, noting the rising temperature. "We weren't wrong to prepare magic for this," she says refering to the magic Mohok cast on her. "Without Endure elements this would get quite uncomfortable, I suppose." As they reach the grand hall, Pip against seems to pick her way by instinct, or more likely trusting in luck to lead her where she needs to go. "I think it's a warning, Garam," she says with reference to the mural. "I'm inclined to heed it so far. Depending on what we find, or course." The ornamental door also draws her attention. "I think you're on to something, Garam. If there's six pieces missing, and six cast iron doors here. That can't be coincidence. Maybe behind each of these doors is one piece of the key?" She hovers back and forth as she thinks. "I wonder whether Zahra came this way. If she did, wouldn't this door be open? Or is this the back entry into the vault, that she wrote about? Could the riddle be involved? Six doors, and 'six is safe and sound'." "Should we open one of these doors and find out?" Pip covers her eyes and spins a couple of turns with outstretch arm, lending on the middle door to the south. "That one?"
Pip is impressed with what they've managed to recover. "Well, at least we know Zahra was properly prepared. Incidentally, those scrolls might also come in useful to use in finding her, won't they? and from her journal, we have a pretty good idea how far she was in her research. Something tell me we have to look out for that mist. Could it have been Moukadeem in gaseous form?" She peeks at the armor. "Nice find, Boom. No idea what it means, but it might let us evade a trap at some point, or maybe solve something to gain entrance to the vault? The enchantment on it might also come in useful. Too bad it's too heavy for me, the breastplate. Anyone else?" she finally checks up on Garam. "Any luck deciphering the map?"
Pip is visibly surprised at the reveal of Svetlana's Hellknight armor. "Well, I can see why you'd cover that up," is her comment on the topic. She isn't exactly disapproving, but does keep a bit of distance on the journey from that point on. As they break up that morning and spot Koor's walls along with what must be Zahra's camp, Pip approaches Mohok with a scroll of endure elements. "You've got a knack for nature magic, right?" She makes sure her goggles are on properly and then approaches the camp. "What did you find, Garam? A map? That's come in useful for sure." Pip ducks into the pavilion without compulsion. "She's obviously in trouble, and we'd be wrong to ignore any clues that may have been here for the finding. Right?" She looks around, lets fickle fate guide her and then decides on a whim to check the crates.
Pip seems happy to have another another bit of knowledge about Koor to her repertoire. "Oh, I didn't know that, about the naga. That's good to know." "So, about those marids. They're water genies, but everyone knew that already. Right? The good news is," she says looking at all the Pathfinders with their assortment of weapons, "that they don't have any special resistances to physical weapons. Or to energy attacks. They're quite dangerous though, having all kinds of magical abilities. Mostly dealing with water, and vapor like gaseous form. Oh, and invisibility and plane shift of course." Seeing how the meeting is about to end, Pip gets her affairs in order. "I suppose I'll have to do some last-minute shopping. I did say this was my first time in Qadira, right?" She nods at Velidor's question about traps. "I can disarm traps, if we find any," she answers. "Wouldn't be much use exploring ancient sites if I couldn't deal with traps." She laughs.
Pip laughs sheepishly. "Thanks. I, eh, just like to read a lot." She turns to the Venture-Captain for some questions. "I didn't know Zahra was an undine. Could she have been bold enough to seek out Moukadeem to release him? You know how such texts always warn people against freeing powerful beings from their prison, but no one seems to heed those warnings... Can't say I blame them - most of the time..." "Also, can we expect any trouble on the way from here to Koor?" "Finally, do we know something of the layout of Koor, and where the Vault might be?"
Pip sits on the edge of her chair as she listens to the Venture-Captain talking. "Zahra?" she exclaims. "I think I read some of her reports!" "I read that as well," she mentions to Svetlana before expanding on that knowledge. "But that's actually the least of what I've read about him. He has an... appetite for human women. During his reign of terror, he err... mixed his blood with the most beautiful of Qadiran woman. Even today, many undines from Northern Qadira can trace their heritage back to this mad marid. Anyway, this Ahmad - a high priest of Torag, finally managed to punish Moukadeem for his crimes and bound him in that lamp we heard about." She seems done talking for a moment, but that's only for taking breath. Clearly, Pip loves talking about the history she's read so much about. "So, Koor is actually a bit of a mystery. It was abandoned during the war between Taldor and Qadira, and no one really knows why it was never repopulated. There's actually two interesting stories I read about Koor. One of them talks about a Qadiran noble who had his a dowry - an immense treasure, as it's told! - within Koor, just around the time is was abandoned. It's a pretty sad story, actually - because Koor was abandoned and the vault keeper deserted, the noble couldn't reach the dowry anymore and lost the chance to marry his true love.." She seems about to mention that the treasure must still be there, but considers that such is obvious. Besides, she doesn't want to ruin the story. "Anyway, the other story deals with the cult of Torag. They were actually the reason why Koor was so well-known as a forge-city. The Toragdans encouraged efficient production and unmatched quality, you can imagine. So, when the city became contested during the war, the cult's leadership decided to pack up and leave. They'd rather abandon the entire thing tahn contributing their expertise to a needlessly bloody war." She finally takes another breath. "That's all I got," she then manages to say as the looks around the group. "Anyone else have something to share?" The question seems a non-starter, but she's completely sincere. --
Pip nods at the explanation, but it's clear that she's not terrible interested. Both 'structured society' and 'philosophical texts' hold little appeal to her. "I'm not much of a sailor," she replies. The Varisian half-orc then takes another long look at the tiefling, until recognition dawns on her face. "Hey, I think I remember you from back in Magnimar. My 'friends' took my to the pits occasionally when I was young. Didn't like it much, though - no offense." The half-elf's questions has her wrinkling her nose. "I'm not really sure what I do - just what's necessary, I suppose. You never know where the Venture-Captains send you, right? That's what I like best about being a Pathfinder!" She curbs her own enthusiasm to give a more useful answer to the question. "I'm at my best exploring ancient sites, dodging and disabling traps and such. I've got a pretty good eye for trouble, and some magic to get myself out of tight spots. If it's needed, I know my way with a sword too. I suppose you're a marksman?" she counters Velidor's question, with a nod to his boomstick.
Pip laughs at the antics of the flying tiefling and half-orc. "Indeed, it's quite curious that this mission has brought such a large group of us together." At the mention of Qadira, she wrinkles her nose. "Never been that far south. I'm not even sure I've packed appropriately..." She watches for a while, then seeks some quiet away from Boom's big personality. She stops next to Svetlana, trying to take a peek at what the blue-haired tiefling is reading. "That's not light reading, is it?" she asks curiously.
The woman overhearing the introduction is a half-orc as well, but she looks quite different from the mottled green Mohok. From a distance Pip might be mistaken for a normal Varisian woman, with her dark skintone and bright clothes. Only up-close would one see the unmistakable marks of Pip’s heritage: a powerful build, short-cropped hair, a broad flat nose and flat ears indicate her orcish ancestry. The other thing to stand out would be the gang tattoos, mostly covered up but coming all the way up to the left side of her neck and down to both her hands. These rough tattoos clash violently with the tattoo on her chest, which she wears proudly visible above her partially unbuttoned orange shirt: A perfectly symmetrical water lily in clean stylized lines, the sigil of Chadali. She's not dressed for trouble, but the luggage she brought on board was extensive; an array of different weapon, a well-filled backpack, several scroll tubes and two bandoliers of various flasks. She looks up from gazing out over the waves. "Name's Pip. I'm sorry to hear that, Mohok. My roots were in Magnimar... The best thing I can say is that I wasn't kicked out. Worst it that it required growing up in a thieves guild. That didn't agree with me, and I was very happy that Chadali provided me with a way out. If you let it, I am sure life will provide you with a way to do good. Fate's funny that way, I've found."
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